Lessons From Facebook: How Culture Leads to Growth

KEVIN COLLERAN:Culture is a critical element of any successful startup — because at the very least, you’re going to be spending a great deal of time with these people, probably more than with your friends and families.

You can point to many consumer technology companies that have been leaders in the creation and implementation of strong corporate cultures: GoogleFacebook and Zappos, for example. Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, is passionate about culture’s importance to the underlying success of his company. I would absolutely encourage all entrepreneurs to read his book, “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose,” and study Zappos’s core values to get a first-hand look at how a foundation of culture can help to build an incredibly successful company.

I was fortunate enough to have been one of the first 10 employees at Facebook and had the opportunity to watch as the company grew to more than 3,000 employees during my six years there. In that time I witnessed a company that grew tremendously — both in terms of revenues and headcount — while never losing focus on the critical nature of culture. There are several examples from Facebook’s early days etched in my memory that illustrate this point:

Develop a Mission Statement. Facebook was always incredibly clear about its mission statement — to both users and its employees (“Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.”). There was not a single employee who could not recite the mission and did not believe that the sole purpose of their career was to build a company that would deliver on its promise. Facebook achieved its mission by implementing a core value: “Move Fast and Break Things,” which encouraged employees to take risks and act quickly, even if their actions created problems. This proved to be instrumental in allowing Facebook to grow quickly and surpass its competitors in the social-networking space.

Company Onboarding Is Everyone’s Responsibility — Not Just HR’s. Facebook has always taken its new employee orientation incredibly seriously. All employees go through the same extensive onboarding experience that allows them to learn about the company culture directly from some of the company’s longest-tenured employees. While many other companies allow the human resources department to run onboarding, Facebook has several of its most passionate and most tenured employees from various departments speak to every new employee to ensure the company’s meaning and purpose are fully understood.

Conduct All-Hands Meetings. When I was at Facebook, they hosted weekly “All Hands Meetings” in which Mark Zuckerberg and the management team hosts an open and honest Q&A forum for employees. These sessions allow any employee to ask direct questions to the company leadership — no matter how sensitive or controversial. These were always a highlight of my week — these sessions were tremendously valuable in building a culture in which every employee knew that they had direct access to the CEO and could openly express any concerns or frustrations that they may have or get answers to questions that most companies would never have addressed in a public forum.

Lead by Example. Zuckerberg is often recognized as an incredible leader (in fact, he was just named “CEO Of The Year” at the Crunchie Awards this past weekend). He’s become a larger-than-life figure in many ways, but he has always led by example with his commitment to the company. No matter how famous or successful he becomes, I am certain that his focus will not waiver. He will remain an incredibly inspiring role model to every employee at the company.

Encourage Social Activities. Since the very beginning of Facebook, employees have always been encouraged to participate in social activities together outside of their “day jobs.” There have always been happy hours, intramural sports teams, clubs and even an annual Game Day (an outdoor field day for all employees). There was even a time in which every employee was offered a $600 monthly rent subsidy if they lived within one mile of the office to encourage employees to live together in a close community. The company also had an entire employee mailing list called “social” that was dedicated to non-work related discussions among employees.

Employ a Unique HR Strategy That Promotes Culture. Facebook never had an in-house HR team in its early days but eventually the time came when one was needed — and this caused some fears. Employees had concerns that if not implemented correctly, an HR department could get in the way of the great openness and culture that had been built within the company. In a very unusual move, a longtime Facebook employee who had always been a rock star on the engineering team but had no HR experience was tapped to run the new department. He was well respected by all employees, but was also a cheerleader for employee culture, mission and morale. This somewhat unorthodox move made it possible for the company to build an HR team around someone with a strong understanding and focus on the company culture — since he helped build it. While he eventually returned to engineering, he created a strong HR team that reinforced Facebook’s culture.

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These recommendations highlight clarifying purpose and communication; Both are necessary but insufficient to create a sustaining company culture. Creating systems, such as a good organizational structure that focuses on work, not building functional empires; encouraging cross-collaboration, and making that part of performance appraisal; and paying people for the right behaviors and the right results are oh so necessary.

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